


but lately (you've been calling me baby)

by Eiso



Category: Let's Play Cyberpunk Red - Polygon (Web Series)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff and Humor, Misunderstandings, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:07:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28436610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eiso/pseuds/Eiso
Summary: "Burger loved Dasha, of course he did, he loved spending time with her and he thought she was beautiful and the idea that they might be dating -- might have been dating for a while -- sat warm and comfortable in his chest, but, except, it just was that, he hadn’t realized that how they interacted might be how two people that were dating behaved, he was just hanging out with his friend, he did stuff like this with Vang0 all the ti- -- now wait, wait a second, now hang on just a second --"a.k.a. 5 times Burger missed the point +1 time he caught a clue
Relationships: Vang0 Bang0/Dapper Dasha/Burger Chainz
Comments: 16
Kudos: 21
Collections: PCPR Mini Big Bang 2020





	but lately (you've been calling me baby)

**Author's Note:**

> Notes:  
> This is a lighthearted fic for once, thanks to Marley from the pcpr discord for beta-ing this and supporting my weird rambling writing style, and thanks to Sherm for the gorgeous art they made for this fic!  
> tw: implied violence, drinking, implied sexual content

**Art by:** [shermanerm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shermanerm)

 **Art at:** [duckneutron](https://duckneutron.tumblr.com/post/638981310852055040/for-eisos-pcpr-mini-big-bang-contribution-but)

1.

Burger wasn’t a hundred percent sure how attending this high class shindig was going to help them with the latest job, but Dasha had walked up to him in that self assured manner that always stopped him asking questions and informed him that they were “going to a party tonight, I have your clothes picked out already, pick me up at 6:00” so here he was, in a surprisingly comfortable suit, sipping a brightly colored fancy cocktail with a name he didn’t remember out of a delicate glass, trying desperately not to grip too hard for fear of snapping the ridiculously thin stem between his fingers. 

Dasha had managed to get them a table to themselves in the corner with good lines of sight for the whole room, and had spent most of the time so far making snide comments under her breath about the other guests’ fashion choices -- bending down slightly to murmur in Burger’s ear how “that one clearly has more money than sense, did he seriously get a whole suit made from gold thread, that has to be so ridiculously uncomfortable,” and “that’s a gorgeous dress but what were they thinking pairing that necklace with it, it brings the whole look down,” and “that jacket really isn’t working for them is it, you could pull it off much better,” -- and to be perfectly honest Burger was just focused on responding in a similar vein without letting on how distracting it was when Dasha leaned her weight on him like that -- effortlessly trusting him to not let her fall, trusting him to keep an eye out for any threats while she laughed at the train wreck that was high fashion, trusting him enough to laughingly share her thoughts -- 

Until a stranger struck up a conversation and she was once again networking and gathering information and mentioning that “actually I happen to know a few folks who could help you out with that if you want me to put you in contact” while he stood by and nodded along and calculated just how tricky it would be to put the other person’s head through the table and fight their way out of there if things went south -- not that he thought it would, Dasha was a smooth talker and he was staying quiet and actually now that he thought about it they might actually have real invitations to this thing, Dasha had mentioned that the host owed her a favor so for once they hadn’t had to forge invites, but it was still probably best to have an exit plan just in case, and oh the conversation was done and 

Dasha was draining her glass and saying something about hating it when “work gets in the way of having a good time, let’s go dance so no one can interrupt us again” and maybe Burger was a little confused -- because first of all, the last time he checked Dasha considered work to be a good time in and of itself, and second of all, he was under the impression that this whole thing was for a job, he had probably missed something again, hopefully he could figure it out eventually -- but he wasn’t going to complain about getting to dance with his friend so he took Dasha’s hand and they swept out onto the dance floor and Burger managed not to step on her toes the whole time -- and perhaps focusing on how to accomplish that feat was the reason he collided with approximately a million other partygoers but you have to pick your battles sometimes -- 

And between the dancing and the drinking -- and the four separate face-downs that occurred after Burger was more than few drinks in and Dasha was just tipsy enough to not bother smoothing over the situation that arose from him saying exactly what he thought of how that suit was speaking to the server -- Burger forgot about Dasha’s comment until they were stumbling back to his van with two fists worth of bruised knuckles and three fewer shoes between them and Dasha laughed and mentioned how “it’s been so long since I got in a good fight without being paid for it, I’d forgotten how fun it is” and Burger opened his mouth to ask why exactly they had gone to this party, anyways, but Dasha was leaning down and pressing her lips to his cheek and thanking him for coming with her and he kind of felt like he was floating so he figured it probably didn’t matter anyways.

2.

Burger hadn’t really planned on going out after their last job wrapped up -- he was pretty tired and he needed to mess with the settings on his eye after that one emp blast -- but Vang0 had draped themself over the headrest of his seat and waved their agent in his face, the screen open to the homepage of some fancy new restaurant, and demanded that Burger had to “come with me, it’s been getting great reviews on Jumptrash and I heard they’re doing a special tonight with color coded foods and we _have_ to try the chartreuse menu” so Burger readjusted his plans for the evening, swung by Dasha’s apartment to drop her off because “like hell am I going to try something called a _chartreuse menu_ , Vang0, I doubt you two will survive the night,” and managed to only get turned around twice trying to follow Vang0’s directions to the restaurant.

The place was pretty busy for how early in the evening it was, but Vang0 messed with their agent for a moment and -- totally legally and definitely not at all due to hacking into their reservation system -- managed to get them a table pretty much immediately, a booth in the back corner that Burger wasn’t entirely sure about, it would put one of their backs to the entrance and considering how many people they’d pissed off in the last few days he didn’t think that was a great idea, but Vang0 neatly solved the problem by sliding onto the same bench with him -- they pressed up against him as they reached across to grab a menu, ducked their head closer to point out the special of the night, shoved at him as he suggested that maybe they should order something that wasn’t colored with highlighter fluid, and Burger smiled and nodded and focused on what Vang0 was saying -- he definitely wasn’t distracted by how the lights glinted off of Vang0’s rings, there was no way his breath caught a little when they laughed at a comment he made, for sure he didn’t feel even a little flutter in his chest when Vang0 took their first spoonful of neon green soup and promptly spit it back out with a disgusted look on their face -- and he eagerly agreed when, as they were finishing off the last of the lime… pudding? at least, Burger thought it might be pudding, Vang0 suggested that “we could pop on over to the park before heading home, I saw some people on the forums talking about setting off some fireworks they snagged from a storehouse out east and it sounds like a good time,” so they paid for dinner -- “I’ll pay, Burger, it was my idea anyways” -- and headed towards the waterfront to see how much of the show they could catch before it got shut down.

This late at night, when the sun had gone down and the sky was glowing yellow with streetlights and the headlights of cars rushing across the city turned into fractured streaks of red and white in Burger’s vision, the waterfront almost looked beautiful -- the reflections of buildings against the water obscured the shine of oil, the beach was dark enough that you hardly noticed the trash, and the cool night breeze brought in the scent of low tide to wash away the normal smells of the city -- Burger felt himself relax a bit as he and Vang0 found a reasonably nice patch of grass just out of the light of a streetlamp, Vang0 pointing out where “the fireworks should start there, and I bet they’ll manage at least fifteen minutes before someone calls the cops on them, we’re in for a treat” and Burger wished Dasha could be here to watch the fireworks too so he mentioned that maybe they should ping her agent and Vang0 groaned dramatically and flung themself backwards across his lap with a hand draped across their forehead and whined that “you went out with her last week, I thought we could spend some time together just us” but they were already pulling up their agent and shooting Dasha a text, “she should be here in about half an hour, hopefully she won’t miss the show,” and smiled up at Burger without artifice and the two of them waited in comfortable silence for her to arrive -- Vang0 going through jumptrash while using Burger’s legs as a pillow, Burger ignoring the way his feet were steadily falling asleep as he balanced his agent atop their head and pulled up his favorite car mods site -- and Dasha did miss the start of the fireworks but she showed up a few minutes before the sirens and unplanned explosions started, so she was basically just in time to witness the grand finale.

3.

Among other things, Burger loved: watching old movies, his friends, and watching old movies with his friends, so when he saw that tickets were on sale for a vintage halloween film festival -- and more specifically when he recognized Dasha’s poser model on one of the posters (he was pretty sure her name was Winston Rider or something) -- he instantly got on his agent to snag a spot or three, he wasn’t sure if his friends would be able to come with him but if they couldn’t or didn’t want to he could always just resell the tickets -- someone on jumptrash was sure to be into it -- or worst case scenario he’d spent a bit more than was strictly necessary, but it would be worth it if he was able to spend an evening out with his friends watching a stupid movie and annoying Dasha every time her poser model appeared on screen, but unfortunately,

Upon Burger barging into Dasha’s bedroom and announcing that he got tick- stop screaming Vang0, it’s just me, got tickets to a film festival tonight, are you guys in, Vang0 informed him that they had “a job tonight, Burger, did you even check the zoogle calendar, we’ll go tomorrow or something,” and no, of course Burger hadn’t checked the calendar, that’s Dasha’s job, and sure we can get tickets for tomorrow too but the Winston Rider film is only showing tonight and I thought you guys might be interested -- “Winst- do you mean Winona Ryder?” -- and after about five minutes of schedule comparisons Dasha simply shoved Vang0 out of the bed and declared that she was going to the movie with Burger, Vang0 was finishing their job, and Burger was going to make her some coffee because “it’s too fucking early for this” even though personally, Burger thought 11:00am was a perfectly reasonable time to be awake -- he was probably missing something, or maybe Dasha had just been up late, Vang0 was definitely a blanket hog and Burger knew from experience that sharing a bed with them would be more likely to result in a semi-conscious tug of war than a decent night’s sleep -- so Vang0 got up to do their job and Burger went and made some coffee and Dasha relocated to the couch, where she downed the coffee and some eggs and promptly fell back asleep for another three hours.

The movie itself was fine, but what Burger really enjoyed about the whole experience was asking Dasha whether or not it was her on screen every time Winston appeared and watching the rage slowly build in her eyes until she finally snapped and shoved a handful of popcorn in his face to shut him up -- he got to poke fun at her, she got to take out some of her frustration from work in a relatively harmless way, and as an added bonus he got to be fed popcorn, albeit very forcefully -- and between that and Dasha making him take notes on Winston’s outfits for fashion inspiration later, the first hour of the movie passed in a pleasant blur, but by then the too small theatre seats and dark room were making Burger somehow both uncomfortably cramped and vaguely sleepy, so he carefully stretched out his arms -- making sure not to get Dasha in the head with his elbow, he’d done that before, and while she hadn’t minded too much, it had bruised and Burger had laid awake all night feeling guilty -- and resettled himself into a more comfortable position, and oh, Dasha was laughing at him and calling him “real smooth, Burgs, real smooth,” and leaning into his side and oh, his arm was around her shoulders, that was nice, and oh, if he tilted his head just right he could smell her perfume under the lingering popcorn scent, and the only way this moment could be better was if Vang0 was on his other side but this, this was real nice as well.

4.

Burger wasn’t particularly bothered by the fact that he hadn’t been able to spend time alone with Vang0 much in the past week, between him doing some long distance errands for Hypo earlier in the week and Vang0 spending the last few nights at Dasha’s place “letting off some steam, if you know what I mean, wink wink” -- and yes, Vang0 had said “wink wink” out loud, Burger loved them but sometimes he wanted to chuck them out of the van while underway -- and Dasha calling a family meeting to update their contacts list, it had probably been eight or nine days since Burger and Vang0 had been able to hang out just the two of them, and Burger did miss just spending time with them -- Vang0 explaining the latest tech they were working on while Burger nodded along blankly, or sitting next to them and moderating the chat while they streamed sixnite, or just going to the local black market and browsing the latest weapons and augments together -- so when he checked his calendar and saw that both their afternoons were completely free for once, he shot Vang0 a text to see if they were in (they were) and swung by Vang0’s place on the way to his favorite weapons emporium -- a little hole in the wall place where they knew Burger’s name and were always ready to hook him up with the latest pistol mod or combat knife or just a good job recommendation -- Burger hadn’t gone there with Vang0 yet, but a couple weeks ago he had seen the owner working on a shotgun similar to theirs and his friend had been complaining that the pump action on their weapon was a little sticky, and also apparently the owner’s daughter had engineered some shells that activated an EMP on impact and Burger simply _had_ to share this discovery with someone who would actually appreciate it, 

So it was real nice when, upon the ammo being pointed out to them, Vang0 went on a ten minute long lecture about how they thought the shells could have been designed, interrogated the owner for more information, took a solid half hour musing how they could modify the design for their own shotgun -- Burger didn’t understand most of it, to be honest, but seeing Vang0’s eyes light up and watching them trip over their words in their haste to get all of their thoughts out, gesturing wildly as they shared the information bouncing around in their head, being able to just absorb the cadence of their voice was it’s own reward -- Vang0 didn’t quite buy out the whole stock of EMP shells but it was a close thing, and that combined with the tweaks they wanted for their shotgun pretty effectively used up their budget for the day, but that wasn’t too much of a problem, Burger had only gotten a small augment for his pistol and could easily cover the cost of lunch for both of them -- besides, it was worth it when Vang0 grinned up at him and declared that he was “such a gentlemen, Burger, you really know how to treat a partner right” and linked their elbow with his -- 

And so the two of them left their weapons in the shop and headed out to kill a few hours at the ramen place down the street -- “it’s so good Burger, I can’t believe you’ve never gone there, what do you mean ‘banned for life,’ what did you _do_ ” -- or on second thought maybe the tex-mex a few blocks over, and Vang0 ordered the bottomless enchiladas and Burger got some tacos and way too much horchata which Vang0 immediately stole, and by the time they had to go pick up their guns Burger had somehow been signed up for cooking classes with their waiter’s brother and Vang0 had rewired the wifi to leech off the office building next door and the kitchen had ran out of rice milk, so Burger downed the last of his drink and asked for a takeout box for the fourth round of enchiladas and listened fondly as Vang0 rambled about EMP frequencies for the entire walk back to the shop and maybe tripped over the curb when he was distracted by their smile, but they caught his hand and laughed at him and didn’t let go and the warmth that spread through Burger’s chest at the contact easily rivaled that of the late afternoon sun.

5.

Burger wasn’t particularly surprised, per se, to see that in the short span of time that it took him to grab the nail polish and snacks Dasha and Vang0 had gone from sprawled out over the couch to lazily making out -- Vang0 sitting across Dasha’s lap as she rested her hands on their waist, their arms loosely wrapped around her neck, unhurriedly trading kisses between them -- it wasn’t like Burger was unaware that his friends had something going on -- that he didn’t know that Dasha’s list of people she trusted enough for physical intimacy was short enough to count on one hand with fingers left over and her list for emotional intimacy was even shorter, that Vang0 craved connection and attention if only for the reassurance that the next time they disappeared someone would remember them even if they couldn’t remember themself -- so no, Burger wouldn’t say he was surprised to come back to this particular scene, just a bit confused as to how he was supposed to paint Vang0’s nails now that their hands were in Dasha’s hair, 

But Burger was nothing if not adaptable so he set the snacks on the table and announced that he had the nail polish so what color do you want, Vang0, and also if you could free up your hands that would be great, thanks, and they pulled back from Dasha and grinned up at him and told him they’d like “the yellow polish, that really bright one that hurts to look at, you know the one,” -- Burger groaned internally because he just knew that color would mess with the feedback in his eye, but pulled the color out anyways -- and shifted so that they were leaning against the armrest, one hand still loosely placed against Dasha’s neck and the other extended regally for Burger to paint, smiling fondly at him when he messed up and got polish all over their skin -- his fingers were always a bit clumsy from the augments but his friends never seemed to mind, just made sure to avoid giving him the fiddly bits on jobs and rolled with it 

when he dropped a glass or squeezed their hand a little too hard or had to retype a message three times because the keyboard on his agent was really unreasonably small -- and, once their nails were done, rotated to be fully upside down on the couch and demanded Burger feed them popcorn because “it’s not like I can hold it myself, can I? You can be so inconsiderate sometimes, you know,” but they were smiling as they said it and he knew Vang0 wasn’t actually upset, just complaining for the sake of it, 

So Burger settled down on the floor between Dasha’s legs and booted up sixnite and prepared to game one handed -- to be fair, Vang0 really couldn’t hold their own popcorn right now, could they -- and maybe he lost a few matches when he was distracted by Dasha propping her agent up against his neck or the occasional brush of Vang0’s lips against his fingers when he reached back to feed them, but what did he care if he dropped a tier or two in the rankings when he could make his friends laugh at a particularly humiliating death -- involving a tractor, a cactus, and a particularly angry digital cow -- and feel Dasha’s hands pet gently at his head when he got too worked up during a match and hear Vang0 start up a livestream because “it’s your turn to put your sixnite failings on the internet, Burger,” and just spend time with the two people he cared about most in the world, safe and happy and together.

+1 

Their latest job hadn’t ended up getting them any money, but it had resulted in a promise of unlimited free drinks at a reasonably swanky bar, and while Vang0 had tapped out fairly early on to go sleep for the first time in about fifty-seven hours, Dasha was three sheets to the wind and Burger was -- confused wasn’t the right word exactly, maybe baffled, incredulous, or tentatively hopeful would be better descriptors -- something that encompassed the warm feeling that had risen in his chest when, upon his being approached at the bar by an overly friendly drunk, Dasha had stepped in front of him with a glare on her face and very firmly declared him taken, and it wasn’t even that Burger had been acting uncomfortable or looked to her for help -- he hadn’t been interested in the stranger’s advances but he could handle himself just fine thank you very much, he had already begun to step away with a _why that’s mighty kind of you but I_ when his friend was there, putting a hand on his shoulder and placing herself between them -- Dasha had just, chosen to make it clear that Burger was off limits and he didn’t quite understand why, but if Dasha was going to sit close to him for the rest of the night, growing more affectionately possessive with each drink she finished, Burger wasn’t about to complain, and if he grew a bit flushed when Dasha draped an arm around his shoulder, and nearly choked on his drink when she slurred that “the only person I’m sharing you with is Vang0, all these assholes can find their own dates,” and maybe had to double check that Dasha recognized him when she started pressing soft kisses to the side of his neck, then that was no one’s business but his own. 

It was only because he had stopped drinking more than an hour ago -- someone had to be sober to drive them home even if Keanu was going to do all the hard work -- that Burger had the cognitive ability to wrap an arm around Dasha’s waist and haul her back to the van once she started messing with the buttons on his shirt -- not that he wasn’t a hundred percent ready to continue whatever had inspired Dasha to stare down at him with that look on her face, but he was still pretty lost on what was actually happening and she was drunk and they were both at a bar, so he gently pushed her hands off his chest and helped her wobble out the door and buckled her into the passenger seat and handed her a bottle of water when they got back to her apartment -- where Vang0 had apparently passed out on the couch instead of stealing Dasha’s bed like a normal person, but hey, at least that left the bed free for him to dump Dasha into -- and it wasn’t until she was blinking up at him while he tucked her in and mumbling that “you’re the best boyfriend ever, Burgs” that it occurred to him that maybe he and Dasha were dating, which, the thing was, Burger loved Dasha, of course he did, he loved spending time with her and he thought she was beautiful and the idea that they might be dating -- might have been dating for a while -- sat warm and comfortable in his chest, but, except, it just was that, he hadn’t realized that how they interacted might be how two people that were dating behaved, he was just hanging out with his friend, he did stuff like this with Vang0 all the ti- -- now wait, wait a second, now hang on just a second --

Perhaps it wasn’t the most polite thing to be shaking Vang0 awake at fucking three o’clock in the morning but something had just occurred to him and he had to know right now if he was right and Vang0 was blinking up at him groggily and asking “wha- Burger, what time is it, what’s up? Is something wrong or-” and Burger should probably let them finish but the question was spilling out of his mouth because he has to know, Vang0, are we dating? and Vang0 was squinting at him, confused, and saying “uhh, yeah? the last time I checked at least? Burger, how drunk even are you right now,” and he isn’t drunk at all, actually, but Dasha said something just now about me being her boyfriend and I hadn’t realized and I needed to know if we were dating too and since we are could I maybe kiss you? and Vang0’s face had gone through about fifteen different emotions during the course of Burger’s rambled explanation but they were sitting up and rubbing their eyes with one hand and reaching out to Burger with the other and saying “yeah, yeah of course, c’mere” and threading their hands into his hair and pulling his face down to theirs and 

Oh wow their lips were kinda chapped, he’d have to start carrying around chapstick for them, but he had other things on his mind right now like the way Vang0 smiled into the kiss and the way his heart was racing and the thought that, oh, when Dasha woke up he’d probably get to kiss her too, maybe more than kiss her -- after she’d recovered from the horrible hangover she was pretty much guaranteed to have, she’d really taken advantage of the whole free drinks thing -- and oh, Vang0 was leaning into him and pulling lightly at his hair and opening their mouth to deepen the kiss and all thoughts of tomorrow -- well, later today, actually -- were wiped away in favor of kissing them back.


End file.
